Race, bias and the Zimmerman jury

By Richard Gabriel, Special to CNN

Updated 2114 GMT (0414 HKT) July 16, 2013

Photos: Zimmerman trial47 photos

Key moments in the Zimmerman trial – George Zimmerman is congratulated by members of his defense team, Don West and Lorna Truett, after the not guilty verdict is read on Saturday, July 13, in Sanford, Florida. A jury of six women found him not guilty in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. View photos of the public reaction to the verdict.

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Key moments in the Zimmerman trial – George Zimmerman's wife, Shellie Zimmerman, cries as friends and family members celebrate the verdict on July 13.

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Key moments in the Zimmerman trial – Robert Zimmerman Sr. and Gladys Zimmerman embrace after their son is found not guilty on July 13.

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Key moments in the Zimmerman trial – George Zimmerman prepares to leave the courtroom after the not guilty verdict is read on July 13.

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Key moments in the Zimmerman trial – Zimmerman confers with his defense team on July 13, after working out the wording for a response to the jury, who had asked for clarification on the instructions regarding manslaughter. The response, crafted and agreed to by both the prosecution and defense, instructed the jury to ask their question more specifically, as the court could not engage in general discussion.

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Key moments in the Zimmerman trial – Zimmerman and his defense team stand in the courtroom as the jury arrives before starting their second day of deliberations on July 13.

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Key moments in the Zimmerman trial – Prosecutor John Guy addresses the jury with his closing rebuttal during Zimmerman's murder trial on Friday, July 12. "He shot him because he wanted to," Guy told jurors, saying that Zimmerman didn't have to shoot 17-year-old Martin.

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Key moments in the Zimmerman trial – Zimmerman's attorney Mark O'Mara holds up a chart during closing arguments for the defense on Friday, July 12. "How many 'what ifs' have you heard from the state in this case?" O'Mara asked the jury. "They don't get to ask you that."

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Key moments in the Zimmerman trial – Zimmerman, right, sits with another defense attorney, Don West, this week. West objected to a third-degree murder charge also sought by prosecutors on Thursday, July 11, the day closing arguments began. The judge ruled out that charge but said the jury could consider convicting the defendant of manslaughter.

Key moments in the Zimmerman trial – Defense attorney Mark O'Mara, right, questions forensics animation expert Daniel Schumaker, center, at the bench of Judge Debra Nelson with Assistant State Attorney Richard Mantei, left, during a July 9 hearing on the admissibility of animation created for the defense. Schumaker showed the judge and Mantei some 3-D animation on his laptop after an overhead projector didn't work.

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Key moments in the Zimmerman trial – John Donnelly, a friend of George Zimmerman's, cries on the witness stand on Monday, July 8, in Sanford, Florida, after listening to screams on the 911 tape entered in evidence.

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Key moments in the Zimmerman trial – Sondra Osterman, a friend of Zimmerman's, listens to the 911 tape while testifying on July 8.

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Key moments in the Zimmerman trial – Mark Osterman, a friend of Zimmerman's, testifies on July 8 and describes the type of gun Zimmerman owned.

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Key moments in the Zimmerman trial – Leanne Benjamin, a friend of Zimmerman's, smiles while identifying him in court on July 8.

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Key moments in the Zimmerman trial – Sybrina Fulton, mother of Trayvon Martin, takes the stand during Zimmerman's trial on Friday, July 5.

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Key moments in the Zimmerman trial – George Zimmerman's mother, Gladys Zimmerman, listens to the 911 tape while taking the stand during his trial in Seminole County circuit court on July 5.

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Key moments in the Zimmerman trial – Martin's brother Jahvaris Fulton testifies at the Zimmerman trial in Seminole County circuit court on July 5.

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Key moments in the Zimmerman trial – Volusia and Seminole County associate medical examiner Shiping Bao testifies on July 5. Bao conducted the final autopsy on Martin and determined the cause of death to be a gunshot wound to the chest.

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Key moments in the Zimmerman trial – Florida Department of Law Enforcement Crime Lab Analyst Anthony Gorgone testifies about DNA findings on Wednesday, July 3, in Sanford, Florida. Here, Gorgone points to a sweatshirt worn by Trayvon Martin on the night Martin was shot. Only one stain on Martin's hooded jacket yielded a partial DNA profile that matched Zimmerman's.

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Key moments in the Zimmerman trial – Gorgone points to a jacket worn by Zimmerman on the night of the shooting. Multiple stains on Zimmerman's jacket tested positive for Zimmerman's DNA. At least two stains from the jacket tested positive for a mixture of DNA that included Martin's DNA.

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Key moments in the Zimmerman trial – Firearms analyst Amy Siewert from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement answers questions from the prosecution while holding Zimmerman's gun on July 3. Siewert examined the gun and said Zimmerman had one bullet ready to fire in the chamber as well as a fully loaded magazine when the shooting occurred.

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Key moments in the Zimmerman trial – Alexis Carter, a military prosecutor, testifies during the trial on July 3. Carter taught a criminal litigation class that Zimmerman completed, and testified that the class included extensive coverage of Florida's self-defense laws.

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Key moments in the Zimmerman trial – Mark Osterman, a U.S. Air Marshal and friend of Zimmerman's who wrote a book about the case, testifies on Tuesday, July 2. He recounted the story of the shooting that Zimmerman told him and testified that when he took Zimmerman home from the police station after the shooting, Zimmerman wasn't acting like himself.

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Key moments in the Zimmerman trial – Prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda, on July 2, demonstrates a possible scenario while questioning state witness Chris Serino, a Sanford police officer.

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Key moments in the Zimmerman trial – Hirotaka Nakasone, a voice recognition expert with the FBI, testifies in the Zimmerman trial on Monday, July 1.

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Key moments in the Zimmerman trial – Witness Jonathan Good is cross-examined by defense attorney Mark O'Mara on Friday, June 28.

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Key moments in the Zimmerman trial – Selma Mora reenacts a scenario for defense attorney Mark O'Mara on Thursday, June 27. Mora lived in Zimmerman's neighborhood at the time of the shooting.

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Key moments in the Zimmerman trial – Witness Jennifer Lauer points to where her former home was in the Retreat at Twin Lakes community during questioning by defense attorney Mark O'Mara on June 27. Lauer called 911 on the night of the shooting.

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Key moments in the Zimmerman trial – Rachel Jeantel, a friend of Martin's, is questioned by defense attorney Don West on June 27. She appeared to get frustrated several times during the cross-examination, including one time when West suggested they could break until the morning so she'd have more time to review the deposition transcript.

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Key moments in the Zimmerman trial – The evidence letter that Jeantel says she wrote with a friend for Sybrina Fulton, Martin's mother, is displayed during the trial on June 27. When the defense asked Jeantel to read the letter, she said she couldn't read cursive. She asked a friend to write the letter for her, she said.

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Key moments in the Zimmerman trial – Jeantel testifies on Wednesday, June 26. She was the last person to speak with Martin on the phone.

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Key moments in the Zimmerman trial – Zimmerman walks past Martin's parents, Sybrina Fulton, left, and Tracy Martin, second from left, as he enters the courtroom after lunch recess on June 26.

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Key moments in the Zimmerman trial – Diana Smith of the Sanford Police Department on Tuesday, June 25, shows the jury a bag of Skittles that was collected as evidence at the crime scene. Martin was said to be carrying the bag of candy and a soft drink at the time of his death.

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Key moments in the Zimmerman trial – Assistant state attorneys John Guy, left, and Richard Mantei hold up Martin's sweatshirt as evidence during Zimmerman's trial on June 25. After Martin's death, protesters started wearing hoodies in solidarity against racial profiling.

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Key moments in the Zimmerman trial – During the trial on June 25, crime scene technician Diana Smith shows the jury a gun that was collected as evidence.

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Key moments in the Zimmerman trial – Zimmerman laughs with defense attorney Don West during his trial on June 25.

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Key moments in the Zimmerman trial – Selene Bahadoor enters the courtroom to take the witness stand on June 25. She was the first eyewitness to testify and said the shooting occured right behind her home.

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Key moments in the Zimmerman trial – Seminole County 911 dispatcher Sean Noffke testifies on Monday, June 24, about his conversation with Zimmerman on a non-emergency line the night of the shooting.

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Key moments in the Zimmerman trial – A transcript of Zimmerman's police call on the night of the shooting is projected during opening arguments on June 24.

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Key moments in the Zimmerman trial – Martin's father, Tracy Martin, cries on June 24 as he listens to the description of his son's death.

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Key moments in the Zimmerman trial – Prosecutor John Guy gestures during his opening arguments on June 24. His first words to the six-woman jury may have raised a few eyebrows. "Good morning. 'F*****g punks, these a******s all get away,'" Guy quoted Zimmerman. "These were the words in this grown man's mouth as he followed this boy that he didn't know. Those were his words, not mine."

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Key moments in the Zimmerman trial – From left, Zimmerman's father, Robert Zimmerman Sr.; his mother, Gladys; and his wife, Shellie, are escorted from the courtroom on June 24. Since they are all on the witness list, the judge ruled they cannot be present in the courtroom until after they testify.

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Key moments in the Zimmerman trial – Defense attorney Don West displays a photo of Zimmerman from the night of the shooting during his opening arguments on June 24. He opened his statements with a knock-knock joke but failed to win a laugh. "Knock knock. Who's there? George Zimmerman. George Zimmerman who? Good, you're on the jury," he said.

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Key moments in the Zimmerman trial – A video entered as evidence is displayed on June 24. It shows Martin, right, at a 7-Eleven on the night of his shooting.

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Key moments in the Zimmerman trial – From left, Martin's parents, Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton, and Benjamin Crump, the family's legal counsel, make a brief statement to the media before jurors heard opening statements on June 24.

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Key moments in the Zimmerman trial – Zimmerman waits for the start of his trial on June 24.

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Story highlights

Richard Gabriel: People see themselves as unbiased, but we all carry prejudices with us

Gabriel: Juror's comments showed divide between her and key witness

He says George Zimmerman, Trayvon Martin expressed bias in remarks

It's better to confront our biases than to keep hiding them, he says

Editor's note: Richard Gabriel is the president of the American Society of Trial Consultants Foundation and president of Decision Analysis, a national trial consulting company. He has worked on the Casey Anthony and O.J. Simpson cases and is the author of the upcoming book, "Acquittal", to be published by Berkley Publishing, Penguin Group USA.

In the courts and in society, we tend to think of racial bias as overt bigotry and imagine that the George Zimmermans and the Paula Deens of the world hold negative stereotypes of other races and intentionally think less of them as people.

Actual bias, however, operates in the brain in a much different way.

Our acceptance of other people and cultures is a recent development in human history. The thousands of years of survival training we have acquired in our slow march up the Homo sapiens ladder have taught us to fear and suspect others who do not look and act like us. Wars and genocide have ravaged populations in such forms as the Crusades, Adolf Hitler, Pol Pot, the war in Bosnia, the Hutu-Tutsi conflict, and the recently highlighted battles between Shiites and Sunnis, all in the name of demographic differences.

Thomas Jefferson wrote the "all men are created equal" language in the Declaration of Independence while owning slaves. And despite the Emancipation Proclamation, the Supreme Court codified the oxymoronic "separate but equal" Jim Crow laws in the Plessy v. Ferguson case only 33 years later.

Richard Gabriel

So, despite our noble desire to love our fellow man, we are all suspicious of "The Other" -- in this case, the young man in a hoodie in the rain. Whether that figure comes in the form of a black teenager, a gay co-worker, the Muslim neighbor, the overweight teacher, the barista with the tattoos and piercings, or, yes, even the gun owner, we all have biases. And yet most of us will never admit we have them, placing our own Gandhi-like bias-free self-image on a pillar of fairness and equity. But the truth is, the more we deny we have biases, the more we broaden and deepen those prejudices.

George Zimmerman has denied he holds any racial animosity. And that may be true. But with his statements, "F***ing punks. These a**holes, they always get away," he may have been unconsciously referring to a combination of race, youth, behavior, and clothing. His frustration with the high crime rate in Sanford, Florida, and the robberies in his neighborhood no doubt aggravated his need to "profile" the perpetrators he felt were victimizing his community.

Trayvon Martin, in saying he was being followed by a "creepy-ass cracker," no doubt also racially labeled Zimmerman out of fear. That is how all of our brains work. We categorize the characteristics of those who seem so different from ourselves that it makes us uneasy. And we do it without even thinking about it.

There is a well-known principle in social psychology called ingroup-outgroup bias, which is the tendency to judge members of your own group more favorably and others more harshly. This has been followed by a great deal of recent research on "implicit bias" -- a subconscious negative association that we automatically attribute to others. Both of these cognitive blind spots are dangerous because they run in the background of our minds, all day long, outside our awareness.

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So when Juror B37 speaks to Anderson Cooper about not finding Trayvon Martin's friend Rachel Jeantel credible because she found her "hard to understand" and Jeantel was "using phrases I had never heard before," it is obvious that it was hard for this juror to relate to this witness.

And it is a combination of skin color, idiom, nonverbal behavior, and personality that causes this cultural outgroup divide, not just her race. This juror did not know about Rachel Jeantel's underbite, or that she grew up speaking Spanish and Creole, or how those things affected her communication style, and thus could not relate to her.

In her interview, Juror B37 spoke about Zimmerman's justified actions, his state of mind, her sympathies for him as well as the deceased Martin. In jury selection, she spoke about the Sanford protests before the trial as "rioting." This juror could more easily relate to Zimmerman as the neighborhood watch volunteer trying to protect his neighborhood.

Jeantel, in her interview with Piers Morgan, said she believes that the situation was "racial" and Zimmerman was "finally gonna get one." Some of Martin's supporters invoked Emmett Till and Medgar Evers and criticized the racial makeup of the Zimmerman jury. Their comments, from their experiences, reveal the harsh reality of the world they live in.

Nearly 20 years ago, when I was working for the defense on the O.J. Simpson case, much was made about the racial makeup of that jury (made up of nine blacks, two whites and one Hispanic). But again, it was not just the skin color of those jurors alone that determined that verdict. Three-quarters of those jurors had personal experience with the police profiling, planting evidence, and engaging in other mistreatment. Their experience, derived from their racial reality, obviously made them more receptive to the defense's arguments about police misconduct. We see what we have experienced. So we see what we want to see, whether we are a white juror in Sanford, Florida, or an African-American juror in Los Angeles.

I have worked on more than a thousand trials and have watched jurors in hundreds of jury selections struggle to recognize their own biases and reconcile them with their desire to be impartial judges of facts and laws.

In jury selection in the Zimmerman case, jurors spoke about impressions they had already formed about the case, as well as their own experiences with crime and law enforcement. And while I do not question the Zimmerman jurors' fairness in deciding this case, fundamental psychology and common sense says that you are never fully able to "set aside" your experiences and the beliefs that you have held for years.

In much of this country, this pervasive ingroup-outgroup implicit bias has allowed minority defendants to be charged and sentenced at statistically disproportionate numbers while the disparity is dismissed with excuses, a shrug, and a resigned "What are you gonna do?" It has allowed institutional discrimination to occur in government, businesses, schools, and the courts, while politicians, executives, teachers, and judges vehemently deny its existence. And it has left a bitter legacy of disparate treatment of African-Americans by mostly white juries.

At the conclusion of this tragic case, we can divide again into camps of pro-Martin or pro-Zimmerman advocates and bemoan the lack of racial progress. However, instead of just shaking our heads and speaking sadly about how far we still have to go in the area of race relations, let's use this solemn opportunity to actually move the discussion forward. Just the fact that there has been so much peaceful reflection after this verdict shows a great deal of progress.

A Tufts University study in 2006 showed that diverse juries made better decisions because the different perspectives made them more thorough and less likely to make factual errors. While I am not criticizing this jury's decision, the courts and local communities would all benefit from greater diversity.

Former Police Chief William Bratton significantly reduced inner city crime rates in New York and Los Angeles and improved police relations in minority neighborhoods by community policing policies that favored mediating differences instead of authoritarian strong-arm tactics.

Community courts are gaining favor as a way of building partnerships among residents, merchants, churches, and schools to address local safety and crime problems.

Bias is not simple, and we shouldn't pretend it is. We also should not act as though it is a horrible monster that we should run from. It isn't. It lives in all of us. We just don't know it. The real question for us is not whether we have biases, but how our biases affect how we see and interact with strangers, standing scared in the rain in the middle of a gated community.

So it's time to stop pretending. It's time to make implicit bias explicit. If we're going to talk about race, let's talk about race without resorting to platitudes, righteousness or defensiveness. It's time to recognize that race is more than skin color. It is a rich tapestry woven with cultural, linguistic, behavioral and moral threads.

It's time to talk without judging. It's time to listen without condemning. It's time to admit and take responsibility for who we are. Most importantly, it's time to start understanding. If we really want this trial to mean something, we owe both Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman at least that much.